Egyptian Stations Accuse Ipsos over Ratings

Ipsos is facing a legal challenge from a number of broadcasters in Egypt, who accuse it of bias in reporting audience ratings, according to reports in the Egyptian press. A statement from the global group says it is committed to quality and transparency and will prosecute those making unfounded claims.

Reports on www.thecairopost.com and elsewhere in the region's press say channels including Dream, OnTV and CBC filed law suits around ten days ago accusing Ipsos of giving them unfairly low ratings and inflating those of 'foreign media outlets'.

Ipsos' statement, released on Saturday and reported on www.zawya.com , reaffirms its completely transparent research methods and the accuracy of its results which are based on methods meeting international quality control standards. It also confirms the company's position on 'taking legal action against any baseless accusations that defame both its name and its client's reputations.'

Comments in the online press had also suggested that the company did not have the proper licenses and had even alluded to perceived threats to national security arising from the alleged misreporting. Ipsos points out in reply that it has been operating in Egypt since 2006, with all the necessary permissions and licenses, as befits a company operating in more than 85 countries around the world and 20 markets in the MENA region; and that it has more than 140 highly-skilled Egyptian employees.

Ipsos also conducts internal and submits to external audits as do other large research firms across the globe, and has 'no interest in manipulating or tweaking the research results to suit any personal or business interests' according to Ipsos Egypt MD Dr Amr Kais, who adds that to date, the company has had no complaints from its clients.

Edouard Monin, Chairman and CEO of Ipsos MENA, comments: 'Both local and international companies choose to work with us, due to our proven track record of accuracy in results, our highly transparent research methods, as well as our professionalism, shared across countries.'

Indian audience ratings provider TAM, a joint venture between global groups Nielsen and Kantar, faced similar claims of fraud and bias from broadcaster NDTV in July 2012. While the legal challenge has not apparently made much headway since, the government has recently announced stringent new conditions for metrics providers which seem set to leave the country without ratings for the majority of the coming year.

Web site: www.ipsos.com .